The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1915. RED TAPE AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 248, 29 March 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1915. RED TAPE AND THE WAR.

The reign of red tape, which is gradually dying out everywhere else, still seems to be in full swing at the War Office. The general action of the British Government in the conduct of the war has been beyond all praise. But they have mado one terrible blunder in investing one individual called the public censor with irresponsible authority to decide for himself how much war news to suppress and how much to publish. There is nothing so intoxicating as the sens'.! of irresponsibility. The fact that he coul 1 do as he likes has turned the head of public censor almost as completely as it has done that of the Kaiser, The man who has nothing to do but sit !n an office with a blue pencil and strike out all the news which he does not consider it safe for the public jto know is, almost sure to become a tyrant. The evidence of the fact that the public censor, "clad in a little brief authority" has chuckled in his cleverness in concealing facts which the public had every right to know is irresistible and overwhelming. The Morning Post, The Tinu s and the Daily News have all published courageous and spirited protests against the policy of mystiliciition»by which the action of the public censor haa been animated. The Morning Post took for its peg the fact that any man who takes in an American paper or reads one at his club might see there a full circumstantial account of a naval mishap the news of which had been absolutely sunpressed in the English papers. And it adds, ''This leads to the suspicion that other marine disasters may have been suppressed also." None question the right of the censor to keep secret any information the publication of which might give the enemy any undue advantage in the concerting of its 'plans. But what we contend is iinit the British imblic have every right to know the fu'l truth about all that is happening at the front the publication of which can be of

■no advantage tt» the enemy., But the public censor has gone a great deal further than this. He has kept in'the dark facts . th.6" publication of which would simply have fired the whole- Empire to a more determined and'desperate icsistance to Germany than any it'lias vol: made. When the Empire knows it mint put forth air" its strength'it will? do it; If the British nation has not yet rise-i to< the fervor- of heroism* with, which it drove back the Spanish Armada, the main responsibility of its hesitation must rest on the shoulders of the public censor. The Spectator, in an article says: "We deny emphatically that the mass of the population are aware of the peril to which our armies are exposed. They read in their newspapers about great and stirring events, and they are proud of the gallantry of' our troops at the front, but immersed as they are in their daily toil, and fed. as they have been with rhetoric rather than with facts, the majority, of them have as yet no idea what the war- means; and will not have any until the Government speak to them not as we speak to children- in moments of' danger; but as we speak to grown men and women." That is the gist of' our- ihdictment against the public censor. He treats us as.if we Were children who must not be told anything that might possibly frighten them. Our demand is, let us know tile whole [truth. When we know more we shall do more. The fact simply is that the mass of'the-people have never-yet realised the desperate and awful peril of the struggle in which the Allies are engage.!.. When they know that'they arc confronted by a, periT which nothing but the' united and determined action of the whole Empire can overcome, they will rise to the occasion. The true facts are -gradually oozing out. We know now that terrible struggles are still before us That knowledge ought to and we trust will rally thousands of volunteers to the cause who have not yet offered their services because they have not yet realised that the Empire wanted them. The worst policy the Government can possibly pursue is that which chills the patriotic spirit. The military authorities have done this not only by the suppp.sVinn of war r.i-vs but by raising the standard of recruits to the Guards level. "No man,of ordinary height nw-d apply," was the signal kept flying. That is not the policy the pursuit of which will bring the war to a speedy end. The only policy which can possibly do that is an appeal to the public which lets it know the worst, to call it out to do its best. The Empire is engaged in a struggle so fierce, so. strenuous, so terrib-.e that nothing but the courageous support of all who can possibly do anything to help her can carry her triumphant;}' through it. When the War Office tears red tape to shreds and tells the people the whole truth the Empire will put forth its full might and win the vietoiy, which nothing less than the long p ill, the strong pull, and the pull all together can give us.